Smith, Coffield elected

There will be one new face on the Sisters School Board beginning in July: Tom Coffield will replace Steve Keeton.

Keeton, a Sisters contractor, is completing one four-year term on the board. He chose not to seek re-election, citing time pressures. Coffield, executive director of SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities), easily won the open seat in the May 20 election, receiving 942 votes to 400 for his opponent, retired teacher Steve Mathews.

In the only other board contest on the ballot, incumbent Jeff Smith defeated challenger Del Erlandson. Smith received an even 1,000 votes in final but unofficial returns while Erlandson, owner of two Sisters businesses, drew 434. A third candidate, Tom Harpham, withdrew from the race but his name was still on the ballot and he received 82 votes.

Smith, a commuting professor of public finance at California State University at Dominguez Hills, is completing his first term and is the current board chairman.

He said he expected the election to be "much closer than it was." He also said, "Obviously I'm pleased. I have worked hard to be a good school board member and gather as much information as I could from a variety of sources, so I'm pleased that voters re-elected me so that I can continue. There is a learning curve and I suffered through that curve and am a better board member than I was four years ago."

The third position on the ballot is held by Nugget publisher Eric Dolson, who was unopposed but received 1,132 votes.

The Deschutes County elections office says 1,614 voters cast ballots in the Sisters school contests, representing 36.7 percent of the 4,396 voters registered in the district.